Corey Haim, star of the ’80s favorites The Lost Boys, License to Drive, and Dream a Little Dream (all three also starring his friend and frequent collaborator Corey Feldman), was pronounced dead at 3:30 this morning at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, of what is believed to be an accidental drug overdose.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Haim rose to prominence with the 1986 film Lucas, also starring Charlie Sheen and Winona Ryder. From there, he won a role on the 1987 television series Roomies before going on to be in cast in perhaps his best-known role in Joel Schumacher’s teenage vampire horror/comedy The Lost Boys.

Throughout the ’90s he starred in a number of direct-to-video releases including the sequel to Dream a Little Dream, Dream a Little Dream 2. He also starred in the independent action/comedy Fast Getaway, as well as its sequel Fast Getaway II.

In the ’00s he reunited with Feldman to create the reality television show The Two Coreys, which ran on A&E for two seasons before a rift between the two, resulting from Haim’s addiction to Valium soured their relationship, and the network deciding against pursuing a third season.

Long before vampires glittered (Twilight) or were battling werewolves (Underworld) they were hanging out in backwater towns and convincing teenagers they were eating maggots instead of noodles (Don’t worry, it was kind of like the vampire version of a Jedi mind trick). For those who don’t get the reference, I’m speaking of vampire cult film The Lost Boys.

It’s been more then twenty years since The Lost Boys came out and to give you an idea of how different vampires were back then, here’s the tag line from the original film: “Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire”. Yes, being a vampire was “fun”, especially when the only real threat was a couple of comic book geeks who claimed to be vampire hunters.

It took 21 years for The Lost Boys: The Tribe, a sequel to this classic film to come out, but only a year later for the third installment to start production. Dario Piana is set to direct The Lost Boys: The Thirst which will be shot in South Africa. Based on a script written by Evan Charnov, the new film will focus on at least one of those geeky vampire hunters, Edgar Frog played by Corey Feldman:

“When veteran vampire hunter Edgar Frog finds himself destitute and almost friendless, he thinks his live has hit bottom – but wealthy vampire-romance novelist Gwen Liebling offers him a small fortune to go on the vampire hunt of a lifetime and rescue her son Peter from the Alpha Vampire D.J.Dusk. With the help of his friends Zoe, Lars and Blake, Edgar heads into a bloody battle to exterminate evil.”